economy

Last month we thought Cuba’s communist hardliners had put the brakes on growing the island’s private sector. But you never know with Cuba.

Today Havana issued a hopeful reform that Cuba’s half a million fledgling entrepreneurs – or cuentapropistas – have long waited for. The island’s communist government announced that small private businesses may now become genuine legal entities.

Poverty is up in Miami-Dade County and wages are about the same as they were back in 2010 when adjusted for inflation.

Those are just a few of the findings of a new comprehensive study of prosperity in the county coming out Wednesday from the Florida International University Metropolitan Center that paints a picture of the region that in many ways looks worse than during the height of the last recession.

Both Wanda Gomez’s sons thought the warm weather made it clear where they needed to spend a balmy afternoon last week.“They said, today’s a pool day, but like, we cannot go to pool, because...I have to work,” Gomez says. Such is spring break for a working single mother.

Consistently, voters say the economy is one of the top issues in the race for the White House. It ranks higher than any social issue, gun rights or immigration. If Florida voters are anything like voters elsewhere, it’s the economy that is the big issue as early voting in the state's presidential preference primary begins.

When one thinks of real estate in South Florida, one probably thinks of the housing market. That wouldn’t be wrong, but the other big slice of real estate -- and one with the cranes and big construction projects -- is coming off a big year. Last year South Florida saw more than a dozen commercial real estate deals of more than $100 million dollars. Billions of dollars of office buildings, condo buildings, shopping malls and warehouses were bought and sold throughout the region. Can the boom continue?

The investigative journalism non-profit ProPublica went through court data from 1996 through 2014 in 11 states, including Florida. Capital One has more court filings than any other lender during those years.

In each state, Capital One stood out as the bank that sues its customers the most and for the smallest amount -- as little as $1,000.

Most Americans are no longer in the middle class, according to the Pew Research Center. The country has about 120.8 million adults living in middle-income households, a new Pew study found. That compares with the 121.3 million who are living in either upper- or lower-income households.

Next week, something may happen for the U.S. economy that hasn’t happened in more than a decade -- the Federal Reserve could raise its target interest rate. It’s not expected to be a big hike, but with the job market adding work and wages slowing increasing, the Fed is growing more confident in the American economy. To hear how higher interest rates could affect jobs, paychecks and housing in South Florida, we spoke with Dennis Lockhart, president of the Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta.

The holiday shopping season is just getting started and among the flurry is a special focus on small businesses.

Tomorrow (Nov. 28) is Small Business Saturday— it’s a day that encourages consumers to shop small and local businesses. American Express started the day in 2010 to coincide with the shopping boom that immediately follows Thanksgiving. Last year, customers spent $14.3 billion at independent stores on Small Business Saturday, according to American Express.

The southernmost city ranked 13th on the list. The index was created by measuring median income, percentage of households with income of more than $200,000, median home value and percentage of homes valued at more than $1 million.

Computer glitches interrupted service at The New York Stock Exchange, United Airlines and The Wall Street Journal on Wednesday.

The three technical issues don’t seem to be connected, and representatives from from all three were quick to point to hardware issues as the cause of the interruption and quell rumors of cyber attacks. The interruptions came after worrying declines on China's stock exchanges overnight.